For the 104th week in a row, Tadej Pogačar is at the top of the International Cycling Union’s rankings, where he will end the season for the third time in a row. Primož Roglič advanced to fourth place with an overall third place and two stage victories at the Vuelta.
Primož Roglič concluded the 2019 and 2020 seasons as the number one cyclist in the world and became the first to stay on the throne for more than a year after the 2016 UCI-ranking reform. It will be now Tadej Pogačar improved his compatriot’s achievement, as he cannot lose first place at the end of the season, even if he defends last year’s victory at the Lombardi monument.
Vingegaard has already finished the season
He climbed to second place in the UCI ranking with a gap of more than a thousand points Jonas Vingegaard, who, after finishing second overall at the Race to Spain, confirmed to the Danish media that his 2023 season was also over. The winner of the Tour de France collected as many as 16 victories this year and spent all 68 racing days in stage races.
Evenepol against Slovenians in Lombardy
He slipped to third place after unsuccessfully defending the red shirt in Spain Remco Evenepoel, who will challenge both Slovenians in the battle for the last monument of the season in Lombardy. Roglič gained five places at La Vuelta 23 and made his way just behind the leading three. With a successful finish in the Race of Emilia and Lombardy, he could overtake Evenepoel.
Without Mezgec and Govekar on the EP
Slovenians are among the best cyclists in the world Matej Mohoričwho slipped to 17th place, and in a week he will have to defend his victory at the Race around Croatia.
At the European Championship in Drenthe, Holland it’s over was expecting the performance of Luka Mezgec and Matevž Govekar, but they canceled the performance, announced shunting selector Uroš Murn.
As a result, only six will perform at the EP 2023: Tilen Finkšt, Aljaž Jarc, Jaka Primožič, Anže Skok, Kristijan Koren and Mihael Štajnar. Slovenes will not be at the start in the time trial.
With the podiums at all three grand tours and the victory in Flanders, Slovenia is firmly in third place in the national team ranking, for which the points of the eight best cyclists from each country are added up. As a result, selector Murn will be able to take four cyclists to the road race to the Olympic Games in Paris.
The Dutch are only 500 points behind the Emirates
In the autumn one-day races in Italy, the highlight of which is Lombardy, there will be a big focus on the duel between two superteams for number one in the UCI-ranking. Complete supremacy and a triple win on aggregate helped Jumbu Visma close to just under 500 points behind the leading UAE team Emirates for the time being.
If there is such a small difference even after October 7, when the monument of fallen leaves will be driven away, the prestigious victory between the Dutch and the Emirates will be decided by the Chinese stage race After Guanshi, which was last held before the corona pandemic in 2019.
Source: Rtvslo
